The present disclosure relates to an apparatus for adjusting the height of at least one counter guided in a household device by way of at least one pull-out guide.
Conventional household devices, such as a dishwasher or a baking oven, comprise a counter which is guided by way of at least one pull-out guide. The counter may be arranged on a dishwasher rack or on a cooking item support. Such counters are only displaceable in one horizontal plane out of the household device or back into the household device.
Such household devices usually stand on the floor of a room, so that a user is forced to bend over in order to load or unload the counter and to thereby burden his or her back muscles and spine in a fairly considerable way.
Apparatuses for adjusting the height of such counters of a household device are known from the state of the art, in which the counters can be lifted by a drive such as a belt drive, for example, leading to additional costs for the drive and its installation. Alternative apparatuses, without any additional drive, need to be lifted manually with a large application of force by the user.
It is within the scope of the present disclosure to provide for and to further develop an apparatus for height adjustment of a counter guided in a household device by way of at least one pull-out guide. Such an apparatus is developed in such a way that the lifting and lowering of the counter is enabled without any additional driving means and still without any major application of force.
This present disclosure provides for an apparatus for adjusting the height of a counter guided in a household device by way of at least one pull-out guide. The apparatus includes at least one sliding rail on which the at least one counter is guidable and configured to be pulled out in a pull-out direction and a height adjustment mechanism that is configured to be fixed to opposing side walls of the household device. The height adjustment mechanism includes two arms which are rotatably fixed to each of the side walls with first ends of the arms being parallel to a plane of the side walls and arranged to be spaced parallel with respect to each other. Further included are two guide rails fixable to respective second ends of the arms in a rotatable manner parallel to the plane of the side walls in such a way that the guide rails are configured to be lifted from a bottom position in the household device to an upper position, and an energy storage device is fixed to at least one of the opposing side walls of the household device. The energy storage device is in operative connection with one of the arms fixed to the at least one opposing side wall in such a way that one of a lifting and lowering of the guide rails is supportable by energy stored in the energy storage device.
As noted above, in accordance with the present disclosure, an energy storage device is fixed to at least one of the opposing side walls of the household device. The energy storage device is operatively connected to one of the arms fixed to the side wall such that a lifting or lowering of the counter can be supported by the energy stored in the energy storage device. This solution, in accordance with the present disclosure, produces a very good cost/benefit ratio, since no drive, to be installed with high costs and in a time-consuming manner, is necessary, on the one hand, and the energy storage device supports the adjustment of the counter caused by the user in an energy-saving way, on the other hand.
Advantageous aspects of the apparatuses of the present disclosure are discussed herein and in the accompanying claims.
In an embodiment of the present disclosure the arms and the energy storage device are not fixed directly to the opposing side walls, but at least to one of the opposing side walls of the household device by way of a side wall fixture. Such a side wall fixture can, according to the present disclosure, be fastened easily to such a side wall and has further advantageous features which are disclosed herein.
The energy storage device may be arranged as a tension spring in an embodiment of the present disclosure. Such a tension spring represents a highly cost-effective possibility to support the lifting and lowering of the counter.
In a further embodiment, according to the present disclosure, a guide is provided on the side of the side wall fixture which faces away from the side wall of the household device, in which a guide element can be guided which protrudes from a head element of one of the arms. This enables a precise guidance of the arms and thus the entire lifting and lowering movement of the height adjustment mechanism.
A locking element is provided in an embodiment according to the present disclosure. The locking element is provided in at least one end region of the guide, with which the arm and thereby the entire height adjustment mechanism can be locked. This end position can concern a position, on the one hand, in which the counter is disposed completely in the household device or, on the other hand, in which the counter has reached its lifted end position. A sudden drop of the counter can effectively be prevented with such a locking element, for example.
In accordance with another embodiment according to the present disclosure, the energy storage device is fixed in a horizontally displaceable manner to the side wall of the household device. For example, a groove is provided in the holding plates in which the energy storage device can be locked in a horizontally adjustable way. The supporting power for the lifting and lowering movement of the height adjustment mechanism can be adjusted in a simple way to the local conditions with such an adjusting possibility.
Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following descriptions when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.